


learning how to put us back together

by CrescentScar



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, No Homecoming, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:21:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21523624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrescentScar/pseuds/CrescentScar
Summary: Tony and Peter get close, after seeing Tony alone in a hospital room across the world from home, he can’t just leave him. Pepper’s busy with Stark Industries and of course she loves Tony but he’s not her whole world. Rhodey loves Tony too, it’s not a question, but he’s busy with the Air Force, doing missions as War Machine, all that important jazz. Neither of them is in New York, even though they sometimes visit — whenever they can — and it is Tony’s home. It was Avengers’ home and… he’s all that is left. He’s not about to just up and leave. No one else is here, but Peter is. And Peter can’t just leave him, because he can do something about the situation. Steve destroyed everything, Tony included. He ripped the Avengers apart, Tony included. Peter is there, he has to be.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 59





	learning how to put us back together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KapteeniAngie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KapteeniAngie/gifts).



> Tags to be added as the story progresses. Please contact me if you need anything specific tagged.
> 
> This is going to be eventual Steve/Tony, but it's the slowest of slow burns so I don't even want to tag it yet. I don't want to attract any readership just with thin promises of future relationships. It starts with Peter and Tony, it will stay that way for a while and when it goes to the direction of Steve and Tony getting together it will be a bumpy ride. This isn't too Steve-friendly, so if that's something that makes you uncomfortable, you can hop off right now. 
> 
> Also, the summary is a mess. Sorry about that.

It’s nine in the evening when Happy knocks on Peter’s door. He knows it’s Happy since, well, who else would it be? They’ve been in the hotel for a few days, waiting for Tony to come back, and Peter’s seen Happy a little and the guys bringing room service a little bit more. And he just got his last order in few hours ago so it’s not room service. 

Peter pauses the brainless teen comedy he was watching half-heartedly while browsing Reddit and Twitter and texting with Ned, and jumps from the bed to the door. When he opens it Happy looks… anything but happy. He hasn’t shaved, his hair is a little messy, he hasn’t shaved and he’s missing his tie. He looks at Peter for a second and sighs. 

“You need to be alone for a couple of hours,” he says. Peter’s baffled. It’s not like he’s spent much time with Happy, it’s not exactly news. Then it hits him, what Happy means.

“Wait. Wait, what? Where are you going?”

“I have to be somewhere.”

“Where? What is it? Did something happen?” 

Happy sighs again and Peter looks at him with wide eyes. It’s not what it he’s thinking, right? He has a bad habit of overthinking everything. His therapist used to say something about coming up with catastrophe scenarios for everything. It’s a funny thing to remember. 

But he has to ask, he has to know, “It’s not Mr. Stark, is it?”

Happy looks away. Peter’s heart falls. 

“What happened? Where is he?” Peter asks. It feels hard to breathe. “What happened?” He asked that already. Stupid, stupid. Happy isn’t answering, though. “What happened?” Peter whispers. He thinks he might repeat it a thousand times if that’s what it takes. For some reason he needs to know.

“He’s in a hospital,” Happy just says and turns. “I need to go.”

“Wait!” Peter yells after him. Happy doesn’t. “Mr. Happy, please! I’m coming with you!” 

He runs after the man and somehow he ends up in the hospital waiting room in his pajama pants and his favourite graphic tee, asking questions all the way there even though Happy doesn’t say anything. And Iron Man, _Tony Stark_ , is lying in a bed somewhere, hurt and alone, and it’s _terrifying._

At some point, in a minute or perhaps an hour, a doctor talks to Happy. Peter stares at the floor, sits with his hands clasped between his knees. When the doctor starts leading Happy somewhere, Peter follows and neither of them stops him. 

Tony looks rough. He’s pale, there’s bruises under his eyes, his breathing sounds raspy and shallow. Peter stands at the end of his bed and just looks. At least he is still breathing, and breathing on his own. His left arm is in a sling, there’s bandages around his ribs, he’s hooked into all sorts of lines and tubes. He’s still and sleeping but somehow he doesn’t look peaceful.Peter hears parts of what the doctor is saying, even though he isn’t supposed to, even though he’s not listening.

“He, ah, had hypothermia.” — “Broken ribs.” — “He took a beating.” — “They left him behind.”

Peter doesn’t leave his bedside before they discharge him. Happy has ‘things’ to take care of so Tony would be alone so Peter stays. No one wants to be in a hospital alone, and even though Tony jokes about it and tells Peter he can go back to the hotel and order room service — as much as he wants, go wild — Peter thinks that some part of him appreciates it. Peter tells Tony about the movies he watched and shows he started and Tony listens, sometimes hums, sometimes even asks something. Peter tells him about the two times he was swinging around the city, about all the lights he saw from the rooftops, about some woman he pulled from the road before she got run over and some mugging he stopped. He tells Tony that he thinks the man thanked him profusely, even though he doesn’t know a word of german. Except _prost._

They leave back to New York and for a moment Peter’s afraid that this all will end. That they end up with a relationship worked through unlistened voicemails, trying to reach Tony through Happy, or just hoping against hope that something big happened so he’d bump into Tony while fighting against some Avengers -grade threat and thinking that is just awful. But as they pull up to Peter’s apartment complex, Tony hands him his business card with a number scribbled over it. His personal number, Peter takes it. 

“Call me if you need anything,” Tony says.

“Gen Z doesn’t call, we text,” Peter says with a grin, “or DM.”

“When I was a kid DM meant a dungeon master,” Tony mutters shaking his head, “Seriously, though. If you need anything, kid.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter answers. 

“Like your Aunt could use an upgrade — that is her car, right?” Tony points at the old Volkswagen in front of them as Peter climbs out.

“How did you know—? Doesn’t matter. You can’t just buy us a new car, Mr. Stark,” Peter protests.

“Right,” Tony says with a nod. “Boundaries. But you’ll call?”

“Text,” Peter corrects.

“Text,” Tony repeats, smiling.

It takes two weeks for him to do that. Peter stares at the number in his contacts every single day, multiple times actually. He looks at it every night before going to bed and every morning while brushing his teeth. He doesn’t know what to say — it’s not like he needs anything, he just misses Tony and isn’t that thought absurd? He, a nobody kid from Queens misses Tony Stark, the prodigal genius, Iron Man, the legend. Sometimes he needs to just stop and drop everything and remind himself that yes, this is real.

He patrols every afternoon after school, then goes home and eats dinner and does his homework, hangs out with May or Ned for a bit. After May goes to bed and he pretends to go, too. He listens until May’s breathing and heart rate calm down and she’s asleep. Then he sneaks out his window and swings around Queens one last time before actually going to bed. Most nights it’s quite calm and quiet, it’s just routine, patrolling the perimeter. Some nights, like this particular night, exactly two weeks after Happy dropped him back home and Tony gave him his number, something goes down.

Four armed guys are breaking into a jewelry store, they seem like professionals and maybe Peter should stop to think and at least call the police before charging in. The fight is quite fast and he manages to tie down all of them, but that’s not the problem exactly. The problem is that his suit, the priceless super suit Tony gave him, is bloody and broken. Peter feels like it’s a secondary issue that he is also bloody and broken. It’s not bad or life threatening, just a few grazes of bullets here and there — he isn’t quiet yet used to dodging machine gun fire — but what matters is that the fabric is all scratched up and stained in red and Peter doesn’t think he could just sew it back together and throw it in the washer, at least not with feeling like he’s disrespecting everything Tony Stark has ever built and invented.

First he calls the police and then gets himself on the roof of the building next door. He doesn’t think he could get any further, it’s a struggle as it is, and on his way up there’s a fleeting moment where he wonders how much blood he’s lost. It doesn’t seem like a lot but he is feeling a little light-headed. Peter gets on the rooftop and lies on his back, breathing hard for a few moments and contemplating if he should bother Tony. It’s late and the man is busy enough as it is, he can get home and text Tony tomorrow. Peter gets halfway up before he falls down again and starts the call. Tony answers on the first ring.

“I’m on my way, Pete, just stay where you are,” he says and somehow his tone is both frantic and reassuring at the same time. 

“What?” Peter asks, “On your way where?”

“Just stay put.” It’s not like Peter feels like moving anywhere. Few seconds and he hears the thrusters.

“Oh. You’re coming here,” he says with a soft voice. He’s not sure why he’s voicing his realisation.   
“It’s okay, I’m coming,” Tony says and Peter hums. There’s a second of silence before Tony breaks it again. “Say something. Tell me about school?”

“We had a chemistry test yesterday, I think I did okay but I feel like my teacher doesn’t very much like me.”

“I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t like you,” Tony says distractedly. Peter doesn’t feel like answering anything to that.

“I got into the Academic Decathlon team again this year,” he says instead. “But I don’t know if that’s much of an achievement, even if I’m in a nerd school I don’t think there were many who wanted to get in.”

“It’s great, Peter,” Tony answers, “I’m just there, just hang on. How’s your aunt doing?”

“Oh, she’s fine. She’s good. I think she’s up for a promotion so that’s good. I’m proud of her.”

Peter doesn’t know if Tony answers anything to that, since he touches down on the roof right next to him. “Oh wow,” Peter breaths out. The Iron Man suit is truly magnificent and he hasn’t had an opportunity to _really_ look at it before. It’s a thing of beauty. And then Tony Stark steps out and it’s even better.

“Oh god, kid,” is the first thing that he says. Peter gets up with the best of his ability, even though Tony has to steady him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry about what?” 

“I got the suit all torn up.” Peter can’t look at Tony, he might start to cry. So he ends up looking at the rooftop and the spot where he was lying and it spots of it look suspiciously dark.

“You’re worried about that?” Tony sounds exasperated. “Who cares about the suit! You got yourself all torn up!”

“Why are you here?” Peter asks, feeling small suddenly.

“ _Because_ you got yourself all torn up,” Tony says with a softer tone. That’s when Peter looks back up. Tony smiles, just a bit, and brushes Peter’s bangs from his face. “There’s a, uh, protocol. If you get hurt. Your suit sends data to FRIDAY and if there’s drastic changes in your heart rate or blood pressure or body temperature or… Anyway, you got hurt and FRIDAY sent me a 911 notification.”

“Wow, that’s cool.” He’s a little awed, that the suit can do that but mostly about the fact that Tony would care.  
“Let’s get you to the Tower. The guys at the Medbay will fix you right up. Feeling up for a ride?” 

“Oh my god, seriously?” Peter asks. He’s not _a little_ awed anymore.

“I can call for a car if you think you can wait?”

“No, no, no, no, I mean you seriously would let me fly with _Iron Man?_ ” Peter feels like he maybe should be embarrassed how high his voice gets in the end of that question. Tony laughs and gets back in his suit. Peter’s too stoked to complain about the position, even if he does end up in a bridal carry. 

Tony stays with him as a nurse in the Medbay put him back together. Peter asks him tons of questions about the Iron Man suit and his own suit and Tony answers everything. At first he tries to dumb down his answers but Peter asks continuously more complex questions about the physics of it and how the arc reactor powers the thrusters and repulsors and the storing of energy, and there’s this kind of a unbelieving smile on Tony’s face. Peter ends up with eleven stitches on three separate flesh wounds and having to borrow a band tee and too short sweatpants from Tony. 

Then Tony drives him home and assures him that he can come back the next day and they can fix his suit together. Peter asks a dozen questions about the suit on the way back and another dozen while they’re sitting in the car in front of his apartment building without even noticing they’re still. Tony’s on a tangent about his web solution and how to possibly improve the tensile strength when he happens to see the time on the dashboard and ushers Peter finally in since it’s well past three. 

“Oh,” Peter says slowly as he realises the dark of the night around them has softened to blue, “Oh. I’m so sorry for taking your time, Mr. Stark!”

“Don’t worry about it, kid. It was freely given.” There’s somewhat of a quirk on his lips that could be read as a smile.

“Good night, Mr. Stark,” Peter says sheepishly as he climbs out of the car.

“Sweet dreams, Pete. See you tomorrow.”

“Today, technically.”

Tony chuckles, shaking his head. “See you today. Now go on.”

He stays parked right there as Peter looks around to see if anyone’s watching even though his instincts are saying no and then shoots a web up to the fire escape and propels himself up. He stays there until Peter crawls in through his window and falls into bed, until FRIDAY tells him, “He’s safe, Boss. He’s asleep.” 

Then, just then Tony sighs, reluctantly puts the car in gear and drives back to the Tower. He has things to do before Peter comes back, sleeping somewhere on the list. First and foremost he needs to get the Spider suit clean from all the blood. And maybe come up with something to keep Peter safe… or at least _safer_ while patrolling.

**Author's Note:**

> I want in no way depict Peter like someone who knows everything about everything — the way I see it, he knows a lot about things that he is interested in, such as Iron Man and science so to me it would make sense that he would’ve studied and researched the topic enough to hold up a meaningful conversation with Tony. There is of course a lot for him to learn and a lot Tony can teach him, and I think that’s the beauty of it all. He’s more than willing to learn, he’s enthusiastic. And I think that’s what Tony needs and how they get so close so quickly. At first Tony lets Peter to stay because he doesn’t want to be alone but he soon sees Peter for what he is, someone who could keep up with him.


End file.
